Jan 29, 2025
Readings 1 Cor 12:31b-14:1a and Luke 4:21–30
The Greatest is Love
Misconceptions and Paul’s Teaching
The people of the church in the City of Corinth were convinced that being a good Christian and a good Christian leader was about spiritual gifts, clever ideas, eloquent language, or preaching. Some believed that Christians with greater gifts, impressive preaching, or even wealth should have more influence.
Last week (and throughout the book of Corinthians), we hear Paul say, "No." Being a Christian is about being part of the Body. There is one Jesus, who is the head, and all the rest of us are parts of the body, each with our own important place. Each has their own gift. Each is empowered by the Spirit and given their own role.
When we hear today’s reading about what love is, we must remember that Paul is saying that even these gifts of the Spirit are useless without love. Even our place in the Body is meaningless without love.
I want to say more about where love comes from in a minute, but first, let’s look at the reading to see what love is and is not.
Love Is More Than Words, Gifts, or Sacrifice
"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." (1 Corinthians 13:1 NRSV)
Some of you know that I am not very sentimental. I dislike flowery language and try not to use it in my sermons or conversation. Yet, for some people, words are the most powerful aspect of love. But words themselves are not love. They are only a way of expressing love. Even the most eloquent words, even the special gift of heavenly tongues, mean nothing without love. Words are not love.
"And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2 NRSV)
Surely, if we have these gifts and exercise them, we must love God and others. Think of all the good we could do. Surely, at least the gift of special faith—the ability even to move mountains—must reflect love for God. No, says Paul. These great gifts and all the good they do are not love. These acts of service can express love, but they are not love themselves.
"If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:3 NRSV)
We might think that love is about giving gifts or making sacrifices. But Paul says no—even if you give all you have away to the needy or the poor, it counts for nothing. Even if you give away your whole life, that is not love. These acts can be expressions of love, but giving and self-sacrifice are not love in themselves.
What Love Truly Is
"Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a NRSV)
That is what love is, and we have talked with the children about what some of these qualities might mean in practice.
One of the worst sermons I ever heard was at a wedding where the preacher inserted the names of the couple into this passage. The reason that’s so bad is that none of us could ever meet that standard.
Even worse, as I said to the children, love in this passage is not about our love—it is about God’s love for us. One of my lecturers at college, James Haire, once said that the only thing we could substitute for "love" in this passage is "Jesus dead on the cross." Paul is saying that the most important gift is God’s love for us—this gift of God’s love in Jesus. As we heard last week, we are part of a body, joined to Jesus by the Holy Spirit. We are part of the one Body of Christ.
Pursuing Love Through God’s Spirit
We can only love God and others if we have God’s supernatural love at work in us. If we do, then we can begin on the long road to loving others. As Paul says in the first part of Chapter 14:1, it is only then that we can:
"Pursue love." (NRSV)
"Love should be your guide." (CEV)
"Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it
does." (The Message)
"It is love, then, that you should strive for." (Good News
Translation)
And we will never fully attain that love in this life. As Paul says:
"For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12 NRSV)
But even now, through the Spirit and through the gift of God’s love in Jesus on the cross, we have been given an amazing love, and that means we can begin to love others.
Conclusion: Loving as God Loves Us
To put it another way, in the words of one of my Favorite verses:
"This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven. Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another." (1 John 4:10-11 GNT)